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 THE
LIFE OF PYTHAGORAS
BY
lAMBLICHUS
TRANSLATED FROM
THE GREEK
THOMAS TAYLOR
(ABRIDGED)

Theosophical Publishing House

AMERICAN BRANCH
Krotona, Hollywood, Los Angeles
California

1905 -1915
19 18
Sold by
The Theosophical Phis*
V\'heaton, Illinois
 FOREWORD
On account of the difficulty that most T. S.

students will encounter in consulting the ex-

tremely rare English translation, by Thomas
Taylor, of The Life of Pythagoras, by lam-
blichus, the following abridgement of that
book, made from a copy belonging to the
library of the late Dr. Jerome Anderson, F.
T. S., of San Francisco, California, U. S. A.,
has been prepared by a Student for the aid of
Fellow Students.
Honolulu, T. H, April, 1905.
 The Life of Pythagoras

In his Introduction to the "Life of Pytha-

goras" Taylor writes : "That the following
memoirs of Pythagoras by lamblichus, who
died about 330 A. D., are authentic, is ac-
knowledged by all his critics, as they are, for
the most part, obviously derived from sources
of very high antiquity; and, where the sources
are unknown, there is every reason to believe,
from the great worth and respectability of the
biographer, that the information is perfectly
accurate and true." Pp. v., vi.

And on page xv. he says : "Of the follow-

ing work, it is necessary to observe that the
original has been transmitted to us in a very
imperfect state, partly from the numerous
verbal errors of the text, partly from many
particulars being related in different places, in
the very same words so it ; is highly probable
that it had not received the last hand of lam-
blichus, but that others formed this treatise
from the confused materials found among his
manuscripts after his death.

Mnesarchus and P3'thais, the parents of

Pythagoras, descended from the family of
Ancaeus, he who was ordered by the Pythian
oracle to colonise the Island of Samos, tak-
ing people from Arcadia and Thessaly as well
as from Athens, Epidaurus and Chalcis.
Pythagoras was also called the son of
Apollo, which seems to have originated from
a prediction made by the Pythian oracle to
Mnesarchus, that he would have a son sur-
passing in beauty and wisdom all that had ever
lived and who would be of the greatest ad-
vantage to the human race, in everything per-
taining to the life of man.
When this child was born at Sidon, in

Phoenicia, he was named Pythagoras, signi-

fying that such an offspring had been pre-
dicted by the Pythian Apollo.
According to the ancient theology, between
those perpetual attendants of a divine nature
called essential heroes, who are impassive and
pure, and the bulk of human souls who de-
scend to earth with passivity and impurity, it
is necessary that there should be an order of
human souls who descend with impassivity and
purity, for as there is no vacuum, either in
incorporeal or corporeal natures, it is neces-
6
sary that the last link of a superior order,
should coalesce with the summit of one prox-
imately inferior. These souls were called, by
the ancients, terrestrial heroes, on account of
their high degree of proximity and alliance to
such as are essentially heroes. Souls of this
kind descend into mortality both to benefit
other souls and in compliance with that neces-
sity by which all natures inferior to the per-
petual attendants of the gods are at times
obliged to descend. Hercules, Plato, Theseus
and Pythagoras were of this order of souls.
Mnesarchus returned from his voyage to
Syria with great wealth and built a temple to
Apollo with the inscription of Pythias,
The best teachers were procured for his
young son; at one time Creophilus, and again
Pherecydes, the Syrian and, in fact, almost all

of those then presiding over sacred concerns

took part in his education, so that he became
the most beautiful and godlike of all those
that have been celebrated in the annals of
history.

Even when still a youth, so dignified and

temperate was he that elderly men honored
and reverenced him. Hence also many assert-
7
ed that he was the son of a living God. He
was also adorned by piety and disciplines ; by
a mode of living transcendently good; by
firmness of soul and by a body in due sub-
jection to themandates of reason. In all his
words and actions he displayed an inimitable
quiet and serenity, not being subdued at any
time by anger, laughter, emulation or conten-
tion or any other perturbations of conduct.
Everywhere the youth was celebrated as "the
long-haired Samian" and was reverenced by
the multitude as one under the influence of
divine inspiration.
When about eighteen years of age, fearing
that his studies might be interfered with un-
der the tyranny of Policrates, he departed
privately by night with Hermodamas, sur-
named Creophilus then he went
; to Pherecydes
and to Anaxamander, the natural philosopher,
and also he visited Thales at Miletus. All of
these teachers admired his natural endowments
and imparted to him their doctrines. Thales,
after teaching him such disciplines as he
possessed, exhorted his pupil to sail to Egypt
and associate with the Memphian and Dios-
politan priests of Jupiter by whom he himself
8
had been instructed, giving the assurance that
he would thus become the wisest and most
divine of men. Thales also taught him to be
sparing of his time ; hence he entirely ab-
stained from wine and animal food, confining
himself to such nourishment as was slender
and easy of digestion his sleep was short, his
;

soul vigilant and pure, his body in a state of

perfect and invariable health.
First he sailed to Sidon, his birth-place,

where he conversed with the prophets who

were the descendants of Mochus the physiol-
ogist, and with the Phoenician hierophants.
Then being initiated in all the mysteries of
Byblus and Tyre and in the sacred operations
performed in many parts of Syria. Eager that
nothing, which deserved to be learned, might
escape his observation in the arcana or mys-
teries of the gods. Having obtained much
knowledge from these Phoenician and other
colonies, whose sacred rites were obtained
from Egypt, Pythagoras took advantage of the
landing of some Eg\^ptian sailors on the coast
near Mount Carmelus — in
whose temple Pyth-
agorus dwelt in seclusion most of the time
to embark for the land whence these teach-
9
ings had come. The sailors received him
gladly, for they planned to sell him for a
goodly sum, as a Egypt was
slave when
reached, but the serene, modest and consider-
ate conduct he manifested so impressed the
seamen, that, upon reaching the coast, they
aided him in descending from the ship, placed
him on the purest sand and heaped fruits be-
fore him. For two nights and three days
while on the ship, he had neither partaken of
food nor drink, nor had he appeared to sleep.
Twenty-two years Pythagoras remained in

Egypt, pursuing closely his investigations, visit-

ing every place famous for its teachings, every

person celebrated for wisdom. Astronomy
and geometry he especially studied and he was
thoroughly initiated in all the Mysteries of
the Gods, till, having been taken captive by
the soldiers of Cambyses, he was carried to
Babylon. Here the Magi instructed him in
their venerable knowledge and he arrived at
the summit of arithmetic, music and other
disciplines. After twelve years he returned
to Samos, being then about fifty-six years of
age.
At Samos Pythagoras was publicly called
10
upon by his country to benefit all men by im-
parting to them what he had acquired. The
mode of teaching by symbols was considered
by Pythagoras as most useful, this mode was

cultivated by nearly all the Greeks, as being

most ancient and the Egyptians particularly
honored it, adopting it in the most diversified
manner. Great attention was paid to it by
Pythagoras, as will be found by one who
clearly unfolds the significance and arcane
conceptions of the Pythagoric symbols, thus
developing the great rectitude and truth they
contain when liberated from their enigmatic
form. Those who came from this school, es-
pecially the most ancient Pythagoreans, all
adopted this mode of teaching, in their dis-

courses with each other and in the commen-

taries and annotations. Their writings and
all the books which they published were not
composed in a popular and vulgar diction, so
as to be immediately understood, but in such
a way as to conceal, after an arcane mode,
divine mysteries from the unitiated and they
obscured their writings and conferences with
each other.
Hence he, who selecting these symbols, does
11
not unfold their meaning by an apposite ex-
position, will cause others to consider them as
ridiculous and inane and as full of nugacity
and garrulity. When unfolded conformably to
these symbols they become clear and obvious,
even to the multitudes, and are found to be
analogous to prophetic sayings and the oracles
of the Pythian Apollo, producing a divine af-
flatus in those who unite intellect with erudi-
tion. Some of the symbols are as follows
Enter not into a temple negligently nor adore
carelessly, not even though you stand at the
doors themselves : and adore un-
Sacrifice
shod Declining from the public ways, walk
:

in unfrequented paths Speak not about Pyth-

:

agoric concerns without light : etc., etc.

However, this symbolical mode of teaching

did not appeal to the Samians and no one at-
tended to him or was genuinely desirous of
these disciplines. The one follower whom he
succeeded in obtaining, was a poor boy devoted
to athletic sports. Pythagoras promised to
provide him with everything requisite for the
support of his bodily exercise, on condition
that he would gradually and easily but con-
tinually receive certain disciplines which Pyth-
12
agoras him he had learned from the
told
barbarians in his youth and which now, owing
to the approach of old age he was forgetting.
The youth agreeing, through the hope of
having necessary support, Pythagoras formed
each of his arithmetical and geometrical dem-
onstrations in an abacus, and gave the boy
three oboli as a reward for every figure which
he learned. At length the youth showed that
the beauty of these studies had entirely capti-
vated him, so Pythagoras pretended poverty
and an inability to continue giving him the
three oboli any longer. But the youth replied:
"I am able without these to learn and receive
your discipline." Pythagoras then said: "But
I have not the means of providing sufficient
food for myself and must labor in order to
secure daily necessities and not distract my
mind with the abacus and by vain and stupid
pursuits." The youth, unwilling to discon-
tinue his studies, replied : "I will in future
provide for j'ou and repay your kindness as
the stork does, for I, in my turn, will give you
three oboli for every figure." He alone, of all
the Samians, migrated from his country with
Pythagoras, having the same name, but being
13
the son of Eratocles. There are said to be

three books of this Samian, "On Athletics,"

which have by some been erroneously ascribed
to Pythagoras the son of Mnesarchus.
About this time Pythagoras visited Delos,
worshipping at the bloodless altar of Apollo
and then he went to all the Oracles; likewise

he dwelt in Crete and Sparta, for the purpose

of becoming acquainted with their laws. After
that he returned home and within the city he
established a school, which, long afterwards
was still known as the semi-circle of Pytha-
goras ; and without the city he had a cave,
adapted to his philosophy, in which he spent
the greater part of the day and night; em-
ploying himself in the investigation of the
things useful in disciplines and framing intel-
lectual conceptions after the manner of Minos
the son of Jupiter. Those who came after
him conceived magnificently of themselves
from the knowledge of theorems of small im-
portance ; but Pythagoras gave completion to
the science of the celestial orbs and unfolded
the whole of it by arithmetical and geometrical
demonstrations.
Philosophy becoming more popular, the best
14
of all the Greeks came to Samos to participate
in his erudition. The citizens also compelled
him to belong to all their embassies and unite
with them in the administration of public
affairs. Finding it impossible to fill these po-
litical posts and at the same time remain at
home and philosophize, he decided to go to
Italy, thinking that to be his proper country,
in which men well-disposed toward learning
were to be found in the greatest number.
When he reached Crotona, the noblest city of
Italy, he had about six hundred followers,
eager for the study of philosophy and agreeing
to an amicable division of the goods of life

in common whence; they acquired the name of

Coenobitae.
The greater part of his disciples consisted
of auditors, whom they called Acusmatici, ac-
cording to Nicomachus, more than two thou-
sand of these were captivated by one popular
oration alone. These hearers, with their wives
and children, gathered in a very large and
common auditory, called Homacoion, resemb-
ling a city in size, and founded a place called
Magna Grsecia.
The laws and mandates given by Pythagoras
15
were received as divine precepts ; the greatest
harmony prevailed in all matters and they
were ranked by their neighbors among the
blessed. They thought that a greater good
never had come nor ever would come to man-
kind, than that which was imparted by the
<^ods through Pythagoras.
Aristotle relates, in his treatise "On thr

?ythagoric Philosophy," that the followirir

division was preserved by the Pythagoreans

among their principle arcana : viz., that, of ra-
tional animals, one kind is a god, another man,
and the third such as Pythagoras. Through
him a right conception was introduced of Gods,
heroes and daemons ; of the world, the all-

various motions of the spheres and stars, their

oppositions, eclipses and inequalities, their ec-

centricities and epicycles ; of all the natures

contained in the heavens and earth, together
with those that have an intermediate subsist-
ence, whether apparent or occult. Pythagoras
also unfolded all such disciplines, theories and
scientific investigations, as truly invigorate the

eye of the soul and purify the intellect from

blindness introduced by studies of a different
kind, so as to enable it to perceive the true
16
principles and causes of the Universe. And
besides all this, the best polity, popular con-
cord, community of possessions among friends,
the worship of the gods, piety to the dead,
legislation, erudition, silence, abstinence from
animals, continence, temperance, sagacity, di-
vinity, and, in a word, whatever is anxiously
sought after by the lovers of learning, was
brought to light by Pythagoras.
Understanding that the cities of Italy and
Sicily had oppressed each other with slavery,
both at remote and recent periods, he inspired
the inhabitants with a love of liberty and
through the means of his auditors, liberated
and restored to independence, Crotona, Sy-
baris and many other cities, established laws
for them so that they flourished and became
examples for imitation to the neighboring king-

doms. He entirely suppressed sedition, dis-

cord and party zeal in all the cities of Italy

and Sicily. An epitome of his opinions was
that we should avoid and amputate, by fire,

sword and every possible artifice, from the

body, disease ; from the soul, ignorance ; from
the belly, luxury ; from a city, sedition ; from
17
a house, discord ; and from all things, immod-
eration.

To the young men at the Gymnasium, he

spoke of the duty of paying attention to their
elders ; evincing that in the world, in life, in

cities, and in nature, that which has a preced-

ency is more honorable than that which is

consequent in time. As, for instance, that the

east is more honorable than the west; the
morning than the evening ; the beginning than
the end and generation than corruption
; ; and,
universally, gods than daemons ; daemons than
demigods ; and heroes than men. He asserted
that children many thanks to their
owe as
parents as a dead man would owe to him who
should be able to bring him back to life. He
showed them that they should never be hostile
to friends, but rapidly become friends with
their enemies and that they should exhibit in
;

modesty of behaviour to their elders, the be-

nevolent disposition of children towards their
parents, but in their philanthropy to others,
fraternal love and regard.
The cultivation of learning was also incul-
cated, Pythagoras calling on them to observe
how absurd it would be that they should judge
18
the reasoning power to be the most laudable
of all things and should consult about other
things through this, and yet bestow no time
nor labor in the exercise of it ; though the
attention which is paid to the body, resembles
depraved friends and rapidly fails, but eru-
dition, like worthy and good men, endures till
death, and, for some persons procures im-
mortal renown after death. Erudition, he
showed, to be a natural excellence of disposi-
tion common to those in each genus, who
rank in the first class of human nature, for
the discoveries of these, become erudition to
others. It is possible for erudition to be im-
parted to another v/ithout in the least dimin-
ishing that which the giver possesses ; while,

regarding other objects of attainment, such as

strength, beauty, health and fortitude, it is not
possible to impart them to others, and still

others as wealth, dominion, etc., are no longer

possessed by him who imparts them. Some
goods cannot be possessed by all men, but we
are capable of being instructed, according to
our own proper and deliberate choice. By ed-
ucation men differ from wild beasts, the free
from the slaves, and philosophers from the
19
vulgar. Seven men have been found in one
city even during one Olympiad, that were
swifter than others in the course ; while, in
the whole of the habitable part of the globe,
those that excelled in wisdom were also seven
in number.
Temperance was also recommended for their
consideration ; this virtue alone comprehend-
ing the good both of body and soul, as it pre-
served the health and the desire of most ex-
cellent studies as well. Everything not har-
monizing with temperance should be cut off

with fire and sword. Abstinence from animal

food and likewise from foods calculated to
produce intemperance and impede the vigi-

lance and true energies of the reasoning pow-

ers was inculcated. Sumptuous food should
be served at banquets by being introduced
and then shortly afterwards taken away and
given to the servants, merely serving to pynish
the desires. Similar precept were that gold
ornaments were not to be worn by respectable
women. Silence, for the purpose of govern-
ing the tongue, strenuous and assiduous in-
vestigation of the most difficult theorems ; ab-
stinence from wine ;
paucity of food and sleep

20
an inartificial contempt of renown, wealth and
the like ; a sincere reverence towards those
to whom reverence is due, an unfeigned sim-
ilitude of behaviour and benevolence towards
those of the same age and an animadversion
and exhortation of those that are younger,
without envy; etc., etc.

They must be careful to cultivate a uni-

formly mild joyfulness, not cheerful at one
time and sad at another. Rage, despondency
and perturbation were to be expelled. No hu-
man casualties ought to be unexpected by
those who are endued with intellect but they
should expect that everything may happen
which it is not in their power to prevent.
When inclined to feel age, sorrow or anything
else of this kind, they were to separate them-
selves from all companions and each by him-
self alone, endeavor to digest and heal the
passion.
No Pythagorean, when angry either pun-
ished a servant or admonished any tree man
but waited until his mind was tranquil, em-
ploying quiet and silence to attain this end.
Lamentations, weepings, supplications, en-
treaties were considered abject and effemi-
21
nate and neither gain, desire, anger, ambition
nor anything of a similar nature became the
cause of dissension among them.
When the young men repeated this discourse
which Pythagoras had delivered to them in

the Gymnasium, to their parents, a thousand

men having called Pythagoras into the senate-
house, praised him for what he had said to
their sons and desired him to unfold to the
leaders of the administration anything of ad-
vantage to the Crotonians, which he might
have to say.

First he advised them to build a temple to

the muses, in order that they might preserve
the existing concord. All these divinities were
called by one common name (the Muses),
they subsisted in conjunction with each other,
especially rejoicing in common honors and
there was always one and the same choir of
the Muses. They comprehended in themselves
symphony, harmony, rhythm and all things
that procure concord their power does not
;

alone extend to the most beautiful theorems,

but also to the symphony and harmony of
things.
Next Pythagoras spoke to them of the ne-
22
cessity that strict justice should actuate the
rulers, that as they received the care of the

country from a multitude of the citizens as a

common deposit, it was requisite that they so
govern it that they might faithfully transmit
it to their posterity as an hereditary posses-
sion, and this would be affected if they were
equal in all things to the citizens and surpassed
them in nothing else save justice. The sen-
ators should not make use of the names of
any of the Gods for the purpose of an oath,
but their language should be such as to render
them worthy of belief without oaths. They
should so associate with a wife, the companion
of life, as to be mindful that other contracts
were engraved in tables and pillars, but those
with wives were inserted with children. They
should endeavor to be beloved by their off-
spring not through nature but by deliberate
choice. By orderly conduct and temperance
they should become examples both to their
own families and to the city in which they
lived. They should take care to prevent every
one from acting viciously, lest offenders not
fearing the punishment of the laws, should be
concealed. Sluggishness should be expelled

23
from all their actions, for opportunity is the
only good in every action. The most excel-
lent man was he who was able to foresee what
will be advantageous to himself, the next in
excellence, is he who understands what is

useful from things that happen to others, but

he is the worst of men who waits for the per-
ception of what is best until he is himself
afflicted.

Likewise he said that those who wished to

be honored should imitate those that are
crowned in the course, for they do not injure
their antagonists, but only desire that they
themselves may obtain the victory. Those ad-
ministering public affairs should not be offend-
ed with those that contradict them but should
benefit those who are obedient to them. All
who aspired after true glory, should be such
in reality as he wished to appear to be to
others ; for counsel is not as sacred a thing as
praise, the former being useful only among
men, but the latter is for the most part re-
ferred to the Gods.
Another time when discoursing about jus-
tice Pythagoras surveyed the first principles
of justice and what first causes it to germinate,

24
and then the first causes of injustice, whence
are to be realized how the latter is avoided and
the former properly ingenerated in the soul.
The principle of justice is the common and
equal, through which in a way most nearly
approximating to one body and one soul, all

men may be co-passive and may call the same

thing mine and thine. This Pythagoras ef-

fected by exterminating everything private in

manners, but by increasing that which is com-
mon as far as to ultimate possessions, which
are the causes of sedition and tumult. For
with his disciples, all things were common and
the same and no one possessed any thing
to all
private. Those who approved of this com-
munity used all possessions in the most just
way, but he who did not, received back his
own property which he had brought into the
common stock, with an addition and departed.
In the next place, association with men in-
troduces justice, but alienation and contempt
of the common genus, produce injustice. He
ordained that his disciples should extend this
familiarity to animals of the same genus and
commanded them to consider these as their
familiars and friends, so as neither to injure,

25
slay nor eat any of them. He also associated
men with animals, because they consist of the
same elements as we do, and participate with
us of a more common life and those holding
this view will in a much greater degree estab-
lish fellowship with them and also with those
who partake of a soul of the same species and
of a rational soul.
As the want of riches sometimes compels
many to act contrary to justice, he through
economy, procured for himself liberal expenses
and what was just in sufficient abundance.
Again, a just arrangement of domestic con-
cerns is the principle of good order in
all cities,

for cities are constituted from houses. And

although Pythagoras was the heir of the prop-
erty of Alcaeus, he was not less ad».iired for

his economy than for his philosophy.

Because insolence, luxury and a contempt for
the laws frequently impel men to injustice, he
daily exhorted his disciples to give assistance
to the law and to be hostile to illegality. Lux-
ury is the first evil that usually glides into
houses and cities, is insolence and
the second
the third destruction. Hence luxury should by
all possible means be excluded and expelled
26
from every house and city and men should be
accustomed from their birth, to amanly and
temperate life.

The legislative was another most beautiful

species of justice which he established. The
ordinary judicial form of justice, resembles
medicine which heals those that are diseased,
but this other does not suffer disease to com-
mence, but pays attention from afar to the
soul. The best of all legislators came from the
school of Pythagoras, Charondas, the Cata-
nean, Zaleucus and Timaratus as well as many
others, who established laws with great be-
nevolence and political science.
Farther still he apprehended that the do-
minion of the Gods was most efficacious to the
establishment of justice, that we should con-
ceive that Divinity exists, that He inspects and
does not neglect the human race. Man being
an animal, so far as pertains to his irrational
part, is naturally insolent and variable, ac-
cording to impulses, desires and the rest of
his passions, he requires therefore a trans-
cendent inspection and government of this
kind, from which castigation and order may be
derived.

27
 After the worship of divinity and the dse-

monical nature they thought every one should

pay the greatest attention to his parents and
the laws, faithfully obeying them. Universally
they thought that anarchy is the greatest evil,

since the human race is not naturally adapted

to be saved when no one rules over it. They
considered it prudent to adhere to the cus-
toms and legal institutions of their ancestors.

Being desirous to exhibit in things unequal,

without symmetry and infinite, a definite, equal
and commensurate justice and to show how
it ought to be exercised, he said, that justice

resembles that figure which is the only one

among geometrical diagrams, that having in-
deed infinite compositions of figures, but dis-
similarly disposed with reference to each other,
yet has equal demonstrations of power. This
is the right-angled triangle and the Pythagoric
theorem of 47.1 of Euclid.

Of associations with others, one kind is sea-

sonable, another unseasonable. These are like-

wise distinguished from each other by differ-

ences of age, desert, the familiarity of alli-

ance, etc.
There is also a various and multiform use
28
of an opportune time, for some are angry and
enraged seasonably, others unseasonably.
As a house or a city must have a true ruler,
who governs those that voluntarily submit to
him, so it is with respect to disciplines; when
they are taught with proper effect, it is neces-
sary there should be a concurrence in the
will of both teacher and learner, for, if there
be a resistance on the part of either, the pro-
posed work will never be accomplished in a
proper manner. Illustration of this is the
fact that Pythagoras went from Italy to Delos
when Pherecydes, his old teacher, was dying,
and carefully attended h'S master until he
passed away and then piously performed the
rites due the dead man.
Disciples were so exact about the observance
of promises and compacts that it is related
that Lysis once when just leaving the temple
of Juno, met Euryphamus, the Syracusan, a
fellow-disciple, who desired him to wait until
his homage had been offered to the Goddess,
but becoming absorbed in profound thought,
Euryphamus forgot his appointment and went
out of the temple by another gate. Lysis, with-
out quitting his seat, waited the rest of that

29
day, the following night and the greater part
of the next day and probably would have re-
mained still longer, but Euryphamus happened
to overhear inquiries made in the auditory and
hastened to liberate Lysis from his promise,
explaining the cause of his forgetfulness and
adding: "Some God produced in me this
oblivion, as a trial of your firmness in pre-
serving your compacts."
Pythagoras paid great attention to the ex-
ercise of justice and to the delivery of it to
mankind, both in deeds and words. "Not to
step above the beam of the balance," is an ex-
hortation to justice, announcing that whatever
is just should be cultivated.
With respect to opinion: They said it was
the province of a stupid man to pay attention
to the opinion of every one, especially of the
multiude, for it belongs to the few to appre-
hend and opine rightly, only the intelligent
can do this and they are few indeed. But it
is also stupid to despise the opinion of every-
one, such a person will be unlearned and in-
corrigible. It is necessary for one destitute
of science to learn those things of which he
is ignorant, and it is necessary that the learn-

30
er should pay attention to the opinion of him
who possesses science and is able to teach.

The age of adolescence is the time when the

greater part of the education should be ac-
quired, and for manhood there are other les-

sons.
They asserted that especially looking to the
beautiful and decorous, we should do what-
ever is to be done, and in the second place we
should look to the advantageous and the use-
ful.

With regard to desire they said That desire

:

is a tendency, impulse and appetite of the

soul, in order to be filled with something or to
enjoy something present, or to be disposed ac-
cording to some sensitive energy, and that
there is a desire for the contraries of these.
These desires are impermanent.
Everything discovered was ascribed to
Pythagoras not to themselves. And while he
lived they called him not by his name but "the
divine" and after his death they only said
"that man."
Hippasus, one of the Pythagoreans, is said
to have divulged the theory of commensurable
and incommensurable quantities to those un-.

31
worthy to receive them, or for having revealed
the method of inscribing in a sphere the dode-
cahedron, one of the five solid figures, and
claiming the credit for this discovery for him-
self so that the other disciples not only ex-
pelled him from their common association but
built a tomb as for one who had passed from
the human into another life, or another ac-
count is that the Divine Powers were so in-

dignant that he perished in the sea. Really

this, as well as everything else petraining to
geometry was the invention of "that man."
Geometry was called by Pythagoras "His-
toria."

Fortitude being nearly allied to temperance

and justice, many of the examples illustrating
one will apply equally well to the others.
Hyppobotus and Neanthes narrate the story
of Myllias and Timycha, who showed extreme
fortitude. They say that Dionysius the tyrant,
could not obtain the friendship of any of the
Pythagoreans so he sent thirty soldiers to
intercept them as they made their ac-
some of
customed migration from Tarentum to Meta-
pontum. The small band of ten disciples be-
ing unarmed sought safety in flight, and, the

32
soldiers being heavily armed, they might have
escaped but a field of well-grown beans lay
ahead of them and being unwilling to violate
the command that they should not touch
beans, they halted and picking up sticks and
stones tried to defend themselves against the
armed soldiers, all were at length slain by the
spearmen, not one suflFering himself to be
taken alive, as that was contrary to their sect.
The soldiers were disturbed when they found
it was impossible to fulfill the commands of

the tyrant and bring the people back alive, but

returning they met Myllias the Crotonian and
his wife Timycha, the Lacedemonian, who had
fallen behind their comrades on account of the
woman's health. These two the soldiers cap-
tured and conducted with great care to the
ruler. Great honors were offered them if they
would advise the king and rule jointly with
him, but all overtures were rejected by the
two Pythagoreans. Then he said he would
dismiss them with a safeguard if they would
tell him why their companions chose rather to

die than to tread on beans. Myllias immedi-

ately answered "My companions indeed sub-
:

mitted to death, in order that they might not

33
tread on beans, but I would rather tread on
beans than tell you the cause of this." Aston-
ished, Dionysius ordered him forcibly led away
and commanded Timycha to be tortured,
thinking that the woman deprived of her hus-
band and pregnant would easil)^ tell him what
he wanted to know, through fear of tortures.
But the heroic woman ground her tongue with
her teeth and biting it off spit it at the tyrant.
It is related that when Pythagoras was held
captive by Phlaris, the cruelest of tyrants, he
who dared to utter blasphemies against the
very Gods themselves and shamelessly and au-
daciously opposed all that Pythagoras and
Abaris said, Pythagoras addressed him with
great freedom of speech.
He stated that a transition was naturally
adapted to take place from the heavens to
serial and terrestrial beings ; that all things
follow the heavens ; that the deliberative pow-
er of the soul possesses freedom of will.
Then he spoke of the perfect energy of rea-
son and intellect ; also concerning tyranny and
all the prerogatives of fortune and of injus-
tice and human avarice, plainly telling the
tyrant that all these were of no worth.

34
 Next he gave divine admonitions concern-
ing the most excellent life, earnestly drawing
a comparison of it with the most depraved
life unfolding how the soul and its powers
;

and passions subsist demonstrating to him

;

that the Gods are not the causes of evils and

that disease and other calamities of the body
are the seeds of intemperance. Confuting
Phlaris, he exhibited to him through works,
what the power of heaven is and the magni-
tude of that power; proved to him by many
arguments, that legal punishment is reason-
ably established ; showed the difference be-
tween man and other animals ; scientifically

discussed internal and external speech ; dem-

onstrated the nature of intellect and the knowl-
edge that descends from it together with
many other ethical dogmas consequent to these
things.

Farther still he instructed Phlatis in what

is most beneficial among the useful things of
life, mildly adapting admonitions harmonizing
with these ; adding prohibitions of what ought
not to be done ; the distinctions between the
productions of fate and those of intellect and
also the difference between what is done by
35
destiny and what is done by fate, he unfolded.
Also he spoke concerning daemons and the
immortality of the soul.
Pythagoras appears to have philosophised
with firmness of decision when in a situation
which foreboded injury or death to himself,
but he knew he was not to pass away through
any and indeed that very day,
act of the tyrant
when Phlaris put Pythagoras and Abaris in
danger, he was himself slain by stratagem.
The precept which is of the greatest efficacy
to the attainment of fortitude, is that which
has for its principle scope the being defended
and liberated from those bonds which detain
the intellect in captivity from infancy and
without which no one can learn or perceive
anything sane or true, through whatever sense
he may energize. " 'Tis mind that all things
sees and hears. What else exists is deaf and
blind."

The second precept is that which exhorts to

most studiously purifying the intellect and
adapting it through mathematical orgies to
receive something divinely beneficial, so as
neither to fear a separation from the body
nor, when led to incorporeal natures to be

36
forced to turn away the eyes through their
most refulgent splendor nor to be converted
to those passions which nail and fasten the
soul to the body; which urges the soul to be
untamed by all those passions which are the
progeny of the realms of generation and which
draw it to an inferior condition of being. For
the exercise and ascent through all these is

the study of the most excellent fortitude.

The Crotonians followed the advice given
them by the philosopher and requested him to
discourse to the boys in the temple of the
Pythian Apollo and to the women in the
temple of Juno.
To the boys the following advice was given
That they should neither revile any one, nor
take vengeance on those that reviled. They
were exhorted to pay diligent attention to
learning, as it was easy for a modest youth
to preserve probity throughout life but difficult
for one not naturally well disposed as a child
to accomplish this, or, rather, it is impossible
that one beginning his course from a bad im-
pulse should run well to the end.
The Gods were supposed to be especially
attentive to children and the most philan-
37
thropic of them, Apollo and Love, were uni-
versally represented in pictures as having the
age of boys. He also directed them to exer-
cise themselves in hearing, in order that they
might be able to speak. And farther still, that
having decided upon the path in which they
intend to proceed to old age, they should fol-
low the steps of those that preceded them and
never contradict those that are older than
themselves, for then they will justly think it

right that neither should they be injured by

their juniors.
To the women he discoursed concerning
them that they should in the
sacrifices, telling

highest degree esteem equity and modesty, in

order that the Gods might be readily disposed
to hear their prayers.
Their offerings to the Gods must not be
carried by servants but brought by themselves
to the altars and should consist only of such
articles as they with their own hands had pre-
pared, as cakes, honey and frankincense. No
blood or dead bodies must be brought nor
many offerings made at one time, as though
they never intended to sacrifice again.
They were to be obedient and faithful to
38
their husbands, as they were permitted by their
parents to love the husband in even a greater
degree than those who were the sources of
their existence. Words of good omen they
were to employ and endeavor to predict good
things for others.
He told them how the inventor of names,
who was called by the Egyptians Theuth or
Mercury, perceiving that the genus of women
is most adapted to piety, gave to each of their
ages a name of some God. Hence he called
an unmarried woman Core, i. e., Proserpine;
but a bride, Nympha; the bearer of children
Mater; and the grandmother, according to the
Doric dialect, Maia. The oracles in Dodona
and at Delphi were unfolded through women.
These discourses of Pythagoras produced
such an effect upon the women that they no
longer wore costly garments, but consecrated
many myriads of their vestments in the temple
of Juno. And soon, about the region of the
Crotonians, the fidelity of the husband and
wife was universally celebrated.
Pythagoras was the first who called himself
a philosopher. When asked to explain the
reasons for this application of the word, he

39
compared men of all-various pursuits collected
together in one and the same place, to a
crowd gathered at some public spectacle, where
one hastens to sell his wares for gain and
money, another is a contestant for the renown
acquired by exhibiting the strength of his
body, and the third class, the most liberal,

comes for the sake of surveying the places,

the beautiful works of art, the specimens of
valor and the literary productions usually
shown on such occasions for some men are ;

influenced by the desire of riches and luxury,

others by love of power and dominion or an
insane ambition for glory, but the purest char-
acter is that of the man who gives himself to
the contemplation of the most beautiful things
and him it is proper to call a philosopher.
Many ancient and credible historians claim
that the words of Pythagoras contained some-
thing of a recalling and admonitory nature,
which extended as far as the irrational ani-
mals. One instance is that of the Daunian
bear, which had severely injured the inhabit-
ants, but Pythagoras gently stroked it and
then fed it maize and acorns, compelling it

by an oath not to touch any living thing, and

40
then dismissed The bear hid itself
it. in the

mountains and was never known to attack

any animal after that time. Another account
is that of an ox at Tarentum, which was eat-
ing green beans. Pythagoras advised the
herdsman to tell the ox not to eat beans. The
man replied that he did not understand the
language of oxen but that if Pythagoras did
he better speak to the ox himself. So Pytha-
goras, approaching the animal, whispered in
its ear for a long time and the ox not only
stopped eating beans then but never tasted
them again.While conversing with his fa-
miliars about birds, symbols and prodigies, ob-
serving that all these are messengers of the
Gods, an eagle that was flying overhead came
down and after having been gently stroked,
flew upwards again. Also it is related that
when journeying from Sybaris to Crotona, he
saw some fishermen just drawing in their
heavily laden nets and told them that he knew
the exact number of the fish they had caught.
The fishers promised to do whatever he should
order them if the event corresponded with his
prediction, so, after they had accurately
counted the fish, he told them to return them

41
alive into the sea, and not one of the fish

died while he stood on the shore, though they

were out of the water some time. Having
paid the men the price of their fish he pro-
ceeded to Crotona, his fame having preceded
him.
Many of his associates were reminded by
Pythagoras, by most clear and evident indica-
tions, of the former life which their soul had
lived it was
before bound to their present
body, and he demonstrated, by indubitable
arguments that he had been Euphorbus, the
son of Panthus, who conquered Patroclus.
He frequently sang the Homeric verses per-
taining to himself, to the music of his lyre.
(See Iliad, book 17, Pope's translation.)
Conceiving that the first attention which
should be paid to men is that which takes
place through the senses, he classed music as
the first erudition, which comprehends certain
melodies and rhythms by which human man-
ners and passions are controlled. Music was
considered to contribute greatly to health, if

used in an appropriate manner ; the medicine

obtained through music was called "purifica-
tion." Such a remedy he employed at the ver-

42
nal season. Placing a person who played the
lyre in the center of a circle, those that sur-
rounded him sang certan paeans, through
which they were seen to be delighted and to
become elegant and orderly in their manners.
Melodies were devised against the passions of
the soul as well as against despondency and
lamentation, other melodies he employed
against anger, rage and every other aberration
of the soul. One kind of modulations acted
as a remedy against desires. Among the deeds
of Pythagoras it is said that once, through the
spondaic song of a piper, he extinguished the
rage of a Tauromenian lad, who had been
feasting at night and intended to burn the
vestibule of his mistress through jealousy. A
Phrygian song excited the lad to this rash
attempt, but Pythagoras, as he was astrono-
mizing, met the piper and persuaded him to
change his Phrygian for a spondaic song;
through which the fury of the youth was im-
mediately suppressed and he quietly returned
home, although a little time before this he
could not in the least be restrained nor would
he heed admonition, even stupidly insulting
Pythagoras when he met him.
43
 The whole Pythagoric school produced ap-
propriate songs, which they called exartysis or
adaptations; synarmoge or elegance of man-
ners and apaphe or contact, usefully conduct-
ing the dispositions of the soul to passions
contrary to those which it before possessed.
By musical sounds alone unaccompanied with
words they healed the passions of the soul and
certain diseases, enchanting in reality, as they
say. It is probable that from hence this name
epode, i. e., "enchantment," came to be gen-
erally used.
For his disciples, Pythagoras used divinely
contrived mixtures of diatonic, chromatic and
enharmonic melodies, through which he easily
transferred and circularly led the passions of
the soul in a contrary direction, when they
had recently and in an and secret
irrational
manner been formed such as sorrow, rage
;

and pity, absurd emulation and fear, all-va-

rious desires, angers and appetites, pride, su-
pineness and vehemence. Each of these he
corrected through the rule of virtue, attemp-
ering them through appropriate melodies, as
well as through certain salubrious medicine.
In the evening, when his disciples retired to

44
sleep, he liberated them by these means from
diurnal perturbationsand tumults, purifying
their reasoning power from the influxive and
effluxive waves of a corporeal nature this ;

rendered their sleep quiet and their dreams

prophetic. When they rose in the morning, he
freed them from nocturnal heaviness, relaxa-
tion and torpor, through certain peculiar songs
and modulations, producing either sounds by
striking the lyre or employing the voice.
For himself he did not obtain the desired
result through instruments or the voice, but
employed a certain ineffable divinity, difficult
to apprehend, he extended his ears and fixed
his attention, his intellect, in the sublime sym-
phonies of the world, hearing and understand-
ing the universal harmony and consonance of
the and the stars that are moved
spheres
through them, which produce a fuller and
more intense melody than anything effected
by mortal sounds.
(**Note.
—"The Pythagoreans," says Sim-
plicius, in his Commentary on the 2d book of
Aristotle's treatise "On the Heavens," said,

"that a harmonic sound was produced from

the motion of the celestial bodies and they

45
scientifically collected this from the analogy of
their intervals ; since not only the ratios of the
sun and moon, of Venus and Mercury, but
also of the other stars, were discovered by
them." If one like Pythagoras, who is re-

ported to have heard this harmony, should

have his terrestrial body exempt from him,
and his luminous and celestial vehicles one —
etherial, another aerial and the third his ter-

restrial body —
for the soul has three vehicles,
and the senses which it contains purified, such
a one will perceive things invisible to others
and will hear things inaudible by others. The
first vehicle, which is luminous and celestial,

is connate with the essence of the soul, and in

which alone it resides in a state of bliss in the
stars. In the second, it suffers the punishment
of its sins after death, and from the third it

becomes an inhabitant of earth.

With respect to divine and immaterial

bodies, if any sound is produced by them, it

is neither percussive nor destructive, but it

excites the powers and energies of sublunary

sounds and perfects the sense which is co-
ordinate with them. It has also a certain an-
alogy to the sound which concurs with the
46
motion of terrestrial bodies. But the sound
which is with us in consequence of the sonor-
ific nature of the air, is a certain energy of
the motion of their impassive sound. If, then,

the air be not passive there, it is evident that

neither will the sound that is there be passive.
Pythagoras seems to have said that he heard
the celestial harmony, as understanding the
harmonic proportions in numbers, of the heav-
enly bodies, and that which is audible in them.
Some may inquire why the stars are seen by
our visive sense, but the sound of them is not
heard by our ears? The reply to this is, that
neither do we see the stars themselves, nor
their magnitudes nor their figures nor their

surpassing beauty. Neither do we see the

motion through which the sound is produced
but we see an illumination of them, as that
of the light of the sun about the earth, the
sun himself not being seen by us.)**
This melody also was the result of dissim-
ilar and variously differing sounds, celerities,

magnitudes and intervals, arranged with ref-

erence to each other in a certain most musical
ratio and thus producing a most gentle and,
47
at the same time, variously beautiful motion
and convolution.
Being irrigated, as it were, with this melody,
having the reason of his intellect well arranged
through it, he determined to exhibit images of
these things to his disciples, especially pro-
ducing an imitation of them through instru-
ments and the voice. Thinking that he alone
heard and understood the mundane sounds,
he considered himself worthy to be taught
about the celestial orbs and to be assimilated
to them by desire and imitation, being adapted
to this by the conformation of his body
through the daemonical power that inspired
him. Other men, being unable to comprehend
truly the first and genuine archetypes of
things, should look to him and the gifts he
possessed and be benefited and corrected
through images and examples. Empedocles
also seems to have held this idea about Pytha-
goras and the illustrious and divinely-gifted
conformation of his body above that of other
men, for he says : "There was a man among
the Pythagoreans who was transcendent in

knowledge, who possessed the most ample

stores of intellectual wealth and who was, in

48
the most eminent degree, the adjutor of the
works of the wise. For when he extended all
the powers of his intellect, he easily beheld
everything, as far as to ten and twenty ages
of the human race."

As having some bearing upon the wisdom

employed by Pythagoras in instructing his dis-

ciples, it is well to relate how he invented the

harmonic science and harmonic ratios. . . .

Intently considering the reasoning with him-

self, whether it would be possible to devise
instrumental assistance to the hearing, which
should be firm and unerring, such as sight ob-
tains through the compass and the rule, or
through a dioptric instrument ; or such as the
touch obtains through the balance, or the con-
trivance of measures, thus considering, as he
walked near a brazier's shop, he heard, from
a divine casualty, the hammers beating out a
piece of iron on the anvil and producing
sounds that accorded with each other, one
combination only excepted.
In these sounds he recognized the diapason,
the diapente and the diatessaron, harmony.
And the sound that was between the diates-
saron and the diapente was by itself dissonant,

49
yet gave completion to that which was the
greater sound among them. Delighted, that
the thing he wished to discover, by divine as-
sistance succeeded to his wishes, hewent into
the brazier's shop and found, by various ex-
periments, that the difference of sound arose
from the magnitude of the hammers, but not
from the force of the strokes nor from the
figure of the hammers nor from the transpo-
sition of the iron which was beaten. After
accurately examining the weights and the
equal counterpoise of the hammers, he re-
turned home and fixed one stake diagonally
to the walls, lest, if there were many, a certain
difference should arise from this circumstance,

or, in short, lest the peculiar nature of each

stake should cause a suspicion of mutation.
Then, from this stake, he suspended four
chords of the same magnitude and thickness
and likewise twisted. To the extremity of
each chord also he tied a weight. When the
chords were perfectly equal to each other in
length, he alternately struck two chords at
once and found the before-mentioned sym-
phonies, viz., a different symphony in a dif-
ferent combination. The chord that was
50
stretched by the greatest weight, produced,
when compared with that which was stretched
by the smallest, the symphony diapason. The
former of these weights was twelve pounds,
the latter six pounds, therefore being in a
duplex ratio it exhibited the consonance diap-
ason which the weights themselves renaered
;

apparent. Again, the chord from which the

greatest weight was suspended compared with
thatfrom which the weight next to the small-
est —
depended, eight pounds, produced the
symphony diapente. Hence this symphony is
in a sesquialter ratio, the ratio in which the

weights were to each other.

He found that the chord which was
stretched by the greatest weight, produced,
when compared with that which was next to
it in weight —nine pounds —the symphony dia-
tessaron, analogously to the weights. This
ratio is the sesquitertian, and the ratio of the
chord from which a weight of nine pounds
was suspended to the chord from which the
smallest weight (six pounds) depended, to be
sesquialter. For nine is to six in a sesquialter
ratio. In like manner, the chord next to that
from which the smallest weight depended,
51
was which had the smallest weight, in
to that
a sesquitertian ratio (8:6), but to the chord
which had the greatest weight, in a sesquialter
ratio (for such is the ratio of 12:8). Hence
that which is between the diapente and the
diatessaron, and by which the diapente exceeds
the diatessaron, is proved to be in an epogdoan

ratio, or that of 9:8. But either way it may

be proved that the diapason in a system con-
sisting of the diapente in conjunction with
the diatessaron, just as the duplex ratio con-
sists of the sesquialter, and the sesquitertian,
as for instance, 12, 8, 6; or conversely, of the
diatessaron and the diapente, as in the duplex
ratio, of the sesquitertian and the sesquialter
ratios, as for instance, 12, 9, and 6.

Having conformed both his hand and his

hearing to the suspended weights, and having

established according to them the ratio of the
habitudes, he transferred, by an easy artifice,
the common suspension of the chords from
the diagonal stake to the limen of the instru-
ment, which he called chordotonon. By the
aid of pegs he produced a tension of the
chords analogous to that effected by the
weights.

52
 Experimenting with various instruments, he
iound, in all an immutable concord with the

ratio of numbers. Filling up the middle spaces

with analogous sounds according to the dia-
tonic genus, he formed an octochord, from
symphonious numbers and thus he discovered
the (harmonic) progression, which tends by
a certain physical necessity from the most
grave (i. e., flat) to the most acute sound, ac-
cording to this diatonic genus. From the dia-
tonic, he rendered the chromatic and enhar-
monic genus perspicuous. The diatonic genus
seems to have had the physical gradations
and progressions of a semitone, a tone and
then a tone, this is the diatessaron, a system
consisting of two tones and a semitone. Aft-
erwards, another tone being assumed, viz., the
one that is intermediate, the diapente, is pro-
duced, which is a system consisting of three
tones and a semitone. Next to this is the sys-
tem of a semitone, a tone, and a tone, forming
another diatessaron, i. e., another sesquitertian
ratio. So, in the more ancient heptachord,
all the sounds, from the most grave, which are
with respect to each other fourths, produced
everywhere with each other the symphony dia-
53
tessaron ; the semitone receiving the transi-
tion, the first, middle and third place, accord-

ing to the tetrachord. In the Pythagoric octa-

chord, which is, by conjunction, a system of

the tetrachord and pentachord, but, if dis-

joined, is a system of two tetrachords sepa-

rated from each other, the progression is from
the most grave sound. Hence all the sounds
that are by their distance from each other,
fifths, produce with each other, the symphony

diapente ; the semitone successively proceeding

into four places, viz., the first, second, third
and fourth. After this manner, music was
discovered by Pythagoras and having reduced
it to a system, he delivered it to his disciples
as subservient to everything that is most beau-
tiful.

(lamblichus derived what is here said about

music from Nicomachus.)
Another purification of the dianoetic part,
i. e., of the discursive energy of reason, or
that part of the soul that reasons scientifically,
deriving the principles of its reasoning from
intellect and of the whole soul, through all-

various studies, was effected as follows by him.

He thought that labor should be employed
54
about disciplines and studies, and ordained, like
a legislator, trials of the most various nature,
punishments and restraints byfire and sword,

for innate intemperance and an inexhaustible

avidity of possessing; which he who is de-
praved can neither suffer nor sustain. His
particular pupils he ordered to abstain from
all animals and certain other foods which are

hostile to the reasoning power and impede its

energies. Cotninence of speech was enjoined
and perfect silence, many years they were ex-
ercised in the subjugation of the tongue, and
in a most strenuous and assiduous investiga-
tion and resumption of the most difficult the-
orems. Hence he ordered them to abstain
from wine, to be sparing in their sleep and
food and to have an unstudied contempt of
and hostility to glory, wealth and the like;
to reverence those worthy of it, to display a
true similitude and benevolence to those of the
same age and an attention and incitation to-
wards their juniors, free from all envy.
Pythagoras is acknowledged to have been
the inventor and legislator of all that which

is comprehended under the name of friendship,

that amity which subsists in all things towards

55
all, whether it be that of Gods toward men;
or of men to each other ; of husband to wife,
brothers and kindred ; the conciliation of the
body and of its latent contrary powers,
through health and a diet and temperance con-
formable to this and still farther, ot certain
;

irrational animals through justice, in short, of

all things towards all.

He was the cause to his disciples of the

most appropriate converse with the Gods, both
when they were awake and when asleep ; a
thing which never takes place in a soul dis-
turbed by anger, pain, pleasure or any other
base desire, or defiled by ignorance, which is

more unholy and noxious than all these. By

all these inventions he divinely healed and
purified the soul, resuscitated and saved its

divine part and conducted to the intelligible

its divine eye, which, as Plato says, is better
worth saving than ten thousand corporeal
eyes ; for by looking through this alone, when
it is strengthened and clarified by appropri-
ate aids, the truth pertaining to all things is

perceived. Referring therefore to this, Pyth-

agoras purified the dianoetic power of the soul.
When people came to him desiring to be re-

56
ceived as disciples, they were not immediately
received into the number of his associates,
but first they were tried and judiciously ex-
amined. Their behaviour regarding their par-
ents and relatives was inquired into ; their
general manner of conducting themselves, un-
seasonable laughter, their silence, their speak-
ing when it was not proper and their desires;
with whom they associated, and how they con-
versed with them ; in what they employed their
leisure time during the day and what caused
them joy and sorrow. Likewise the natural
indications of their form, their mode of walk-
ing and the whole motion of their body, were
observed, he holding these to be manifest signs
of the unapparent manners of the soul. When
some had thus been scrutinized, he suffered
him to be neglected for three years, observing
how he was disposed with respect to stability
and a true love of learning and whether he
was sufficiently prepared with reference to
glory, so as to despise popular honor. After
this he ordered those who came to him to
observe a quinquennial silence, in order that
he might experimentally know how they were
affected as to continence of speech ; the sub-

57
jugation of the tongue being the most difficult

of all victories. During this probationary

period, the property of each was disposed
of in common and was committed to the
care of those appointed for this purpose, who
were called politicians, economizers and leg-
islators. Those of the probationers who
proved themselves worthy to participate of
his dogmas, after a silence of five years' dura-
tion, became Esoterics and both heard and saw
Pythagoras himself, behind the veil. Prior to
this they participated of his word through the
hearing alone, beyond the veil, without at all

seeing him, thus giving for a long time a speci-

men of their peculiar manners. If they were
rejected they received double the wealth which
they had brought and a tomb was raised to
them, as if they were dead. And if any of
the homacoi, as the disciples were called, met
with this rejected man afterwards, they be-
haved to him as though he were some other
person. They were of the opinion that those
who were very slow in the acquisition of
knowledge, were badly organized, imperfect,
barren.
There were those whom Pythagoras per-
58
mitted to enter, conceiving that there was some
hope for them, but if, after the quinquennial
silence, the orgies and initiations from many
disciplines, together with the ablutions of the
soul and so many great purifications produced
from various theorems, if, after all this, such
a person was found to be still sluggish and
of dull intellect, they raised a pillar or mon-
ument to the stupid one and expelled him
from the Homacoion or auditory, loading him
with gold and silver.
Evidently the accepted disciples were for-
bidden to impart the knowledge given to them
to those who had not entered the school, for
Lysis blaming Hipparchus, because he com-
municated the doctrines of the Pythagoreans
to the profane and to those who acceded to
them without disciplines and theories, says
"It is reported that you philosophize publicly
and to every one you may happen to meet,
which Pythagoras did not think it proper to
do. These things, O Hipparchus, you learned
with diligent assiduity, but you have not pre-
served them; if therefore you abandon this, I
shall rejoice, but if not, you will be as dead,
in my opinion. It will be pious to call to mind
59
the divine and human precepts of Pythagoras
and not to make the goods of wisdom common
to those, who have not even in a dream, their
souls purified. For it is not lawful to extend
to every casual person, things which were ob-
tained with great labors, nor to divulge the
mysteries of the Eleusinian Goddesses to the
profane. Much time did we spend in wiping
away the stains which had insinuated them-
selves into our breasts, before we became fit

recipients of the doctrines of Pythagoras. As

dyers first purify garments and then fix in the
colors with which they wish them to be im-
bued, in order that the dye may be perma-
nent, after thatsame manner that divme man
prepared the souls of those who were lovers
of philosophy, so that they might not deceive
him in any of those beautiful and good quali-
tieswhich he hoped they would possess. Pyth-
agoras had a scientific knowledge of things
human and divine and did not ensnare and
confuse the youth as the sophists, who pour
divine doctrines into turbid manners. Just as
one pouring pure clear water into a well full

of mud disturbs the mud and destroys the

clear water. Dense thickets which are filled

60
with briars, surround the intellect and heart
of those who have not been purely initiated
in disciplines, obscure the mild, tranquil rea-
soning powers of the soul and impede the
intellective part from growing. Intemperance
and avarice are the mothers of these thickets.
. . It is necessary to purify the woods, in
.

which these passions have their fixed abode,

with fire and sword and all disciplines, then
having liberated the reasoning power from
such mighty evils, something good and useful
may be planted."
So great and necessary was the attention
which ought to be paid to disciplines prior to
philosophy, according to Pythagoras, that he
examined the conceptions of those who came
to him by various documents and ten thousand
forms of scientific theory.

The accepted disciples were distributed into

different classes according to their respective
merits, and, while he imparted a convenient
portion of his discourses to each, he benefited
all of them as much as possible and preserved
the proportion of justice, by making each a
partaker of the auditions, according to his
desert. Hence some of them he called Pytha-

61
goreans but others Pythagorists. With the
Pythagoreans he ordered that possessions
should be shared in common and that they
should always live together; but tTiat each of
the others should possess his own property
apart from the rest and, that assembling to-
gether in the same place, they should mutually
be at leisure for the same pursuits.
There were also two forms of philosophy,
for the two genera of those that pursued it:
the Acusmatici and the Mathematici. The
latter are acknowledged to be Pythagoreans

by the rest but the Mathematici do not admit

that the Acusmatici derived their instructions
from Pythagoras but from Hippasus. The
philosophy of the Acusmatici consisted in

auditions unaccompanied with demonstrations

and a reasoning process ; because it merely
ordered a thing to be done in a certain way
and that they should endeavor to preserve
such other things as were said by him, as di-
vine dogmas. Memory was the most valued
faculty. All these auditions were of three
kinds ; some signifying what a thing is ; others
what it especially is, otherswhat ought or
ought not to be done. Those which signify
62
what a thing is are such as, "What are the
islands of the blessed?" "The sun and moon."
"What is the oracle at Delphi?" "The te-
tractys," etc., etc. But the auditions which
signify what a thing especially is are such as,
"What is the most just thing?" "To sacri-
fice." "What is the wisest thing?" "Num-
ber." But next to this in wisdom is that
which gives names to things. (Proclus saj'S

that by number Pythagoras signifies the intel-

ligible order, which comprehends the multitude

of intellectual forms, but by the founder of
names he obscurely signifies the soul.) "What
is that which is most truly asserted?" "That
men are depraved," etc., etc. This showing
especially what things are is the same as what
is called the wisdom of the seven wise men.

For they investigated not what is simply good,

but what is especially good; not what is dif-
ficult but what is most difficult viz., for a man ;

to know himself, and that is most easy, viz.,

to do what you are accustomed to do. The
auditions respecting what should or should
not be done, were such as, "That it is neces-
sary to beget children, that there may be
those to worship the Gods after us. That it

63
is requisite to put the shoe on the right foot
first," etc.

Other precepts of this kind are: Do not

assist a man in laying a burden down, for it

is not proper to be the means of not laboring,

but assist him in taking it up. Do not draw
near to a woman for the sake of begetting
children, if she have gold. Speak not about
Pythagoric concerns without light. It is not
proper to sacrifice a white cock, for it is also
a suppliantand sacred to the moon, hence it
announces the hours. Labors are good but
pleasures are in every respect bad, for as we
came into the present life for the purpose of
punishment, it is necessary that we should be
punished.
It is good to sustain and to have wounds
in the breasts, but it is bad to have them be-
hind. The soul of man does not enter into
those animals, which it is lawful to kill. Hence
it is proper to eat those animals alone which
it is fit to slay, etc.
All the disciples preserved perpetually among
their arcana, the principal dogmas in which
was chiefly contained, keeping
their discipline
them with the greatest silence from being di-
64
vulged to strangers, committing them unwrit-
ten to memory and transmitting them orally
to their successors. Hence nothing of their
philosophy worth mentioning was made public,
it was known only within their walls, but to

those outside their walls, — the profane — if

they happened to be present, these men spoke

obscurely to each other through symbols, such
as, "Dig not fire with a sword."
First in the Pythagorean discipline, the ap-
plicant was tested to see whether he could
refrain from speaking and conceal in silence
and preserve what he had heard and learned.
In the next place modesty was looked for,
then he was observed as to whether he showed
astonishment by the energies of any immod-
erate passion or desire; also how he was af-
fected with respect to anger or desire, and
whether contentious or ambitious and how
disposed with reference to friendship or strife.

When these proved satisfactory, then the fa-

cility for learning and memory was considered,
whether he was able to follow what was said
with rapidity and perspicuity; and in the next
place whether love and temperance were dis-
played towards the disciplines taught.

65
 Those who committed themselves to the
guidance of his doctrines, acted as follows
They performed their morning walks alone
and in places in which there was appropriate
solitude and quiet, for they thought it not
proper to converse with any one till they had
rendered their own souls sedate and had har-
monized the reasoning power. It was consid-
ered a thing of a turbulent nature to mingle
in a crowd as soon as they arose from sleep.

But after their morning walk they associated

in discussion of doctrines and disciplines and
in correction of their manners, with each other
frequenting temples and similar places.
After this they attended to the health of the
body, most using unction and the course, oth-
ers wrestling in gardens and groves, some
leaping with leaden weights in their hands, or
in pantomime gesticulating, and with a view
to the strength of the body they studiously
selected opposite exercises for this purpose.
Their dinner consisted of bread and honey
and they did not drink wine during the day.
After dinner, they employed the time in the
political economy pertaining to strangers and
guests, conformably to the mandates of the
66
laws. When it was evening, they again walked,
but in groups of two or three, not singly, as
in the morning, calling to mind the disciplines
they had learned and exercising themselves in
beautiful studies. After walking, they bathed,
and then assembled in the place where they eat

together, not more than ten eating together.

Libations and sacrifices were performed with
fumigations and frankincense. Then the sup-
per was eaten and finished before sunset.
They used wine, maize, bread and every kind
of food that is eaten with bread and also raw
and boiled herbs. The flesh also of such an-
imals as it was lawful to immolate was placed
before them, but they rarely fed on fish, for
this nutriment was not, for certain reasons,
useful to them. They considered that animals
innoxious to the human race, should not be
injured or slain. Libations were offered after
the supper and readings followed, the youngest
reading what the eldest selected. When they
were about to depart, the cup-bearer poured
out a libation for them and then the eldest
announced to them precepts regarding duties
to the divine and also to the lower kingdoms,
to the daemonical and heroic genera and to

67
parents and benefactors. They wore a white
and pure garment and slept in white and pure
beds, the coverlets of which were of thread,
for they did not use woolen covers. They
were so attentive to their bodies that they al-
ways remained in the same condition, not at
one time lean and at another abounding in
flesh. This being considered an anomalous
condition.
As nutriment greatly contributes to the best
disciplines, Pythagoras also instituted a law
about this. is flatulent and
All such food as
the cause of perturbations was rejected, but
such food as composes and compresses the
habit of the body, he approved. Millet was
considered a plant adapted to nutrition. Such
food as is sacred, the disciples were ordered
to abstain from, as being worthy of honor and
not to be used for common and human pur-
poses. Likewise such foods as are an im-
pediment to prophesy, or to the purity and
chastity of the soul and which obscure and
disturb the other purities of the soul and the
phantasms which occur when asleep, all such
were rejected.
The variety of food which is assumed is

68
most manifold, there are an infinite number of
fruits and roots which the human race uses
for food; all-various kinds of flesh, and it is

difficult to find any terrestrial, aerial or aquatic

animal, which it does not taste. It also em-
ploys all-various contrivances in the prepara-
tion of these and manifold mixtures of juices.
Hence it follows that the human tribe is in-
sane and multiform, according to the motion
of the soul, for each kind of food that is in-
troduced into the body becomes the source of
a peculiar disposition. With wine, we perceive
that it causes a great change in quality, and
when used abundantly, it makes men at first
more cheerful, but afterwards more insane
and indecorous. But men are ignorant of
those things which do not exhibit a power of
this kind, though everything that is eaten is

the cause of a certain peculiar disposition,

hence it requires great wisdom to be able to
know and perceive what kind and what quan-
tity of food ought to be used. This science
was first unfolded by Apollo and Paeon, after-
wards by ^sculapius and his followers.
There were many reasons why Pythagoras
ordained abstinence from animal flesh, one be-
69
ing because it is productive of peace. Those
who are accustomed to abominate the slaughter
of animals as iniquitous thinking it much more
unlawful to kill a man or to engage in war.
The most contemplative of philosophers, who
had arrived at the summit of philosophic at-

tainments, were forbidden to eat anything an-

imated or to drink wine or to sacrifice ani-
mals to the Gods, or to injure animals in any-

way. Pythagoras himself lived after this man-

ner. Those who acted as legislators were re-
quired to abstain from animals, for to act
truly justly they should not injure kindred
animals.
Even those whose life was not entirely puri-
fied, sacred and philosophic and were allowed

to eat certain animals, were required to ab-

stain at definitely appointed times and were
enjoined not to eat the heart, nor the brain,
for these are parts belonging to the ruling na-
ture, ladders and seats of wisdom. Mallows
he requested his followers to abstain from,
because this plant is the first messenger and
signal of the sympathy of celestial with ter-
restrial nature. Several fish sacred to ter-

restrial Gods were forbidden. They were to

70
refrain from beans, on account of many sacred
and physical causes and also such as pertain
to the soul.
With the Pythagoreans, the whole life was
arranged to follow God. They believed that
all things are possible to the Gods and that
good is to be sought only from the Lord of all
things. It not being easy for a man to know
what are the things in which God delights, it
is necessary to obtain this knowledge from
one who has heard God, or must hear God
himself or else procure it through the divine
art. Hence they studied divination, for this
alone is an interpretation of the benevolence
of the Gods. Many of the mandates of the
Pythagoreans were introduced from the Mys-
teries. Pythagoras is confidently asserted to
have been present at Metapontum in Italy and
at Tauromenium in Sicily, discoursing to dis-

ciples in both places the same day. Ten thou-

sand more particulars are related of "the
Man" ; such as showing his golden thigh to
Abaris the Hyperborean, also infallible pre-
dictions of earthquakes, rapid expulsions of
pestilence and violent winds, instantaneous
cessation of hail, calming waves of rivers and
71
seas, that his disciples might pass easily over
them. Judging by names applied to others
they also possessed and employed similar
powers, for Empedocles, the Agrigentine was
surnamed "an expeller of winds ;" Epime-
nides the Cretan, "an expiator;" and Abaris
"a walker on air." The Pythagoreans ac-

knowledged that all the marvels related con-

cerning Pythagoras could not have happened
to a mere man, but considered him superior
to man. This is the meaning of their enig-
matical assertion, that man, bird and a third
thing are bipeds, the third thing being Pytha-
goras.
Music, medicine and divination were the
sciencesmuch honored by the Pythagoreans.
They were habitually silent and prompt to
hear. With medicine they, in the first place,
endeavored to learn the indications of sym-
metry, of labor, food and repose. Next the
preparation of the food and the method of
employing it was attended to. Incisions and
burnings they employed least of all remedies.
Some diseases were cured by incantation.
Health was considered to be greatly bene-
fitedby music, when used in a proper way.
n
 To strengthen their memory the disciples

never rose until they had first recollected the

transactions of the former day; and this was
accomplished by trying to remember what he
first said or did or heard or ordered his do-
mestics to do, what was
when he was rising;
the second, the third and so forth. Thus he
recalled all the events of the whole day and
in the very same order in which they hap-

pened. If they had sufficient time, they tried

to recollect the second and third preceding

day in like manner. For there is nothing
which is of greater importance with respect
to science, experience and wisdom than the
ability to remember.
The Pythagoreans gave their right hand to

those of their own sect alone, their parents

excepted.
Many of the political actions of the Pjrtha-
goreans were very praiseworthy. The Cro-
tonians being accustomed to indulge in sump-
tuous funerals and interments, one said to
them that Pythagoras, when discoursing about
divine natures, observed that the Olympian
Gods attended to the dispositions of those
that sacrificed, and not to the multitude of

1Z
the sacrifices ; but the terrestrial Gods, as be-
ing alloted to government of less important
things, rejoiced in banquets and lamentations,
and continual libations, as well as in delicacies

and extravagant expenditures. Hence on ac-

count of his wish to receive, Pluto is called
Hades. He therefore suffers those that slen-
derly honor him to remain a long time in the

upper world, but constantly draws down some

one disposed to spend profusely in funeral
solemnities.
The Crotonians hearing this, decided that if

they were immoderate in their expenses, they

would all die prematurely and they adopted a
simple mode of life. Another instance evi-

dencing the change of disposition that took

place after men became disciples is as follows

Two men, at variance with each other, became

disciples and the junior came to the other and
said to him that there was no occasion to refer

the affair to a third party, but that it rested

with themselves to commit their anger to

oblivion. The elder then responded that he

was very much pleased in other respects with

what had been said, but that he was ashamed

74
that he, being the elder, had not been the first

to say this same thing to the junior.

Although they were greatly calumniated, yet

the probity of the Pythagoreans was so well
known that they were desired by many of the
Italian cities to administer their public affairs,
they being excellent guardians of the laws,
counseling the adoption of beneficial measures
but abstaining from public revenues. It is

asserted that Pythagoras was the inventor of

political erudition when he said that nothing
is pure among things that have existence ; that
earth participates of fire, fire of air, air of
water and water of spirit. And, in a similar
manner, the beautiful participates of the de-
formed, the just of the unjust, etc. He also
said that there are two motions of the body
and of the soul ; the one being irrational but
the other the effect of deliberate choice. That
three certain lines also constitute polities, the
extremes of which mutually touch each other
and produce one right angle so that one of ;

them has the nature of the sesquitertian, an-

other that of the diapente and the third is the
medium between the other two. When we con-
sider by a reasoning process, the coincidences

75
of the lines with each other and also of
the places under these, we shall find that
they represent the best image of a polity.
Plato, who made the glory of this invention
his own, says : "That the sesquitertian progeny
conjoined with the pentad produces two har-
monies." Many were the benefits conferred
on mankind by Pythagoras in political con-
cerns.

All the Pythagoreans religiously respected

their oaths, mindful of the precept,

"First to the immortal Gods thy homage pay,

As they by law are orderly disposed
And reverence thine oath, but honor next
The illustrious heroes."

One of the members chose rather to pay a

fine of three talents than to take an oath com-
pelled by law, though he would have sworn
religiously.
They thought that nothing happens from
chance, but that all events take place con-
formably to divine providence. Accordingly
when a friend was bidding Thymaridas a dis-
ciple, farewell as he departed on a ship, he
said, "May such things happen to you from
the Gods, O Thymaridas, as are conformable
to your wishes 1" but the reply was, "Predict
better things, for I should rather wish that
such things may happen to me as are con-
formable to the will of the Gods."
In speaking of the natures superior to men,
Pythagoras employed honorable appellations
and words of good omen, upon every occasion
making mention of and reverencing the Gods
while at supper he performed libations to the
divinities and ordered his disciples to cele-

brate with hymns the beings above us, every

day. He paid attention to rumors and omens,
prophecies and lots and all casual circum-
stances. He sacrificed to the Gods with millet,

cakes and honeycombs and other fumigations.

But neither he nor any one of the contem-
plative philosophers sacrificed animals. The
Acusmatici and the politicii, were ordered by
him to sacrifice animals such as a cock or a
lamb or some other animal recently born, but
not frequently. Oxen were not to be offered.
In short, Pythagoras honored the Gods in a
manner similar to Orpheus, placing them in
images and in brass, not conjoined to our
forms, but to divine receptacles (to spheres,
as most appropriate Image of divinity),
the
because they comprehend and provide for all
things and have a nature and morphe similar
to the universe. and initiations,
Purifications
which contain the most accurate knowledge of
the Gods, he promulgated. He was the author
of a compound divine philosophy and worship
of the Gods having learned some things from
;

the followers of Orpheus some from the ;

Chaldaeans and Magi, and some also from the

Mysteries performed at Eleusis, in Imbrus, Sa-
mothracia and Delos, as well as in Iberia and
by the Celtae. He asserted that it was neces-
sary that he who entered a temple should be
clothed with a pure garment, in which no one
had slept; because sleep, in the same manner
as the black and the brown, is an indication
of sluggishness ; but purity is a sign of equality
and justice in reasoning. He farther ordained
that on a festive day neither the hair nor the
nails should be cut, it not being fit to neglect
the service of the Gods for our own good. He
would not suffer the bodies of the dead to be
burned following in this the Magi, being un-
;

willing that anything divine should communi-

cate with a mortal nature. He thought it holy

78
for the dead to be carried out in white gar-
ments, obscurely signifying by this the simple
and first nature, according to number and prin-
ciple of all things. When it thundered, he or-
dained that the earth should be touched, in
remembrance of the generation of things. The
right hand he called the principle of the odd
number and is divine, but the left hand is the
symbol of the even number and of that which
is dissolved.
The science of intelligible natures and the
Gods, Pythagoras delivers in his writings from
a supernal origin. Afterwards he teaches the
whole of physics and unfolds completely ethi-
cal philosophy and logic. All-various disci-
plines and the most excellent sciences, in short,
there is nothing pertaining to human knowl-
edge which is not accurately discussed in these
writings. He applied himself greatly to geom-
etry while among the Egyptians, who excelled
in this subject as, on account of the inun-
dations of the Nile, the ground had to be
skillfully measured, hence the word geometry
was derived.
In the theory of the celestial orbs, Pytha-
goras was skilled. All the theorems about
79
lines seem to have been derived thence. What
pertains to computation and numbers was dis-

covered in Phoenicia, while the theorems about

the celestial bodies is referred to both the
Egyptians and the Chaldaeans. Pythagoras
having received all these theories increased
them and imparted the sciences to his auditors,
clearly and elegantly.

He first denominated philosophy, saying it

was the desire, the love of wisdom, wisdom

being the science of the truth which is in be-
ings. And beings, he said, are immaterial
and eternal natures, and alone possess an
efficacious power, such as incorporeal essences,
while the rest of these things are only homon-
3miously beings, though called through the par-
ticipation of real beings, and such are cor-
poreal and material forms, which arc gen-
erated and corrupted and never truly are.

Wisdom is the science of things which are

properly beings, but not of such as are ho-
monymously so. Corporeal natures are neither
the objects of science nor admit of a stable
knowledge, since they are infinite and incom-
prehensible by science, and are as it were,
non-beings, when compared with universals,

80
and are incapable of being properly circum-
scribed by definition.
It is impossible, however, to conceive that
there should be a science of things which are
not naturally the objects of science. Hence
it is not probable that there will be a desire of
science which has no subsistence, but rather
that desire will be extended to things which
are properly beings, which exist with invari-
able permanency and are always consubsistent
with true appellation. For it happens that the
perception of things which are homonymously
beings, and which are never truly what they
seem to be, follows the apprehension of real
beings, just as the knowledge of particulars
follows the science of universals, for he who
knows universals properly will also have a
clear perception of the nature of particulars.
Hence things which have an existence are
not alone, nor only-begotten, nor simple, but
they are seen to be various and multiform.
Some of them are intelligible and incorporeal
natures which are denominated beings ; but
others are corporeal and fall under the per-
ception of sense, and by participation com-
municate with that which has a real existence.
81
 Concerning all these, he delivered the most
appropriate sciences and left nothing pertain-
ing to them uninvestigated. He likewise un-
folded to men these sciences which are com-
mon to all disciplines, such as the demonstra-
tive, the definitive and that which consists in
dividing.
He was accustomed to pour forth sentences
resembling oracles, to his familiars, in a sym-
bolical manner and which in the greatest brev-

ity of words, contained the most abundant

and multifarious meaning, like the Pythian
Apollo, or like nature herself, though seeds
small in bulk, the effects indeed innumerable
in multitude, and difficult to be understood.
Of this kind is the sentence : The beginning
is the half of the whole.
The Pythagoreans had signs and symbols by
which those who had never seen each other
in the body could perform acts of friendship
when necessary. Worthy men who dwelt in
the most remote parts of the earth were mu-
tually friends even before they had become
known to and saluted each other.
It is related that a Pythagorean fell ill at an
inn, far from home. The inn-keeper was a

82
benevolent man and supplied him with all that
was requisite but the man finally knew that
death was near and writing a symbol on his
tablet, gave it to the inn-keeper, desiring him
to suspend it near the road after his demise,
assuring him that the person who was able
to read the symbol would repay all that had
been spent and would also thank the tavern-
keeper for his kindness. Through surprise
and curiosity rather than that he expected to
receive any recompense for his good deeds, the
man hung the tablet in the public way near
the house. A long time afterwards, another
Pythagorean passed the place and reading
the sign inquired who had placed it there and
investigated every particular, then paid the
inn-keeper a greater sum than he had dis-
bursed.
Still farther respecting friendship he taught
that true friendship must be free from con-
test and contention; there should be the least
possible scars and ulcers, and this will be the
case, if friends know how to soften and sub-
due anger. Confidence should never be sep-
arated from friendship, even in jest. Friend-
ship should not be abandoned on account of

83
misfortune and the only approvable rejection
of a friend and friendship is that which arises
from great and incorrigible vice. Hatred
should not be voluntarily entertained against
those who are not perfectly bad, but if it is

once formed, it should be strenuously retained,

unless the object change his manners and
become a better man. The hostility should
not consist in words only, but in deeds, this
war is legitimate and holy when conducted as
becomes one man contending with another.
We should do all possible to avoid becom-
ing the cause of dissension.
They declined foreign friendships with the
greatest sedulity; friendships towards each
other were rigidly preserved for many ages.
(The story of Phintias (Pythias) and Damon
is here given.)
The sources whence such piety was derived
may be found in the writings of Orpheus, and
in the treatise "Concerning the Gods'* which
Pythagoras called the "Sacred Discourse," be-
cause it contained the flower of the most myth-
ical work of Orpheus. There is a question
whether Pythagoras wrote this work himself
or whether it was taken from commentaries
84
left by Pythagoras to his daughter Damo, the
sister of Telauges who was one of his sons,

and which writing it is said, after the death

of Damo was given to Bitale, her daughter,

and to Telauges her husband and also her
mother's brother. For when Pythagoras died
Telauges was left very young with his mother
Theano. Damo is the daughter of whom it

is said that when he was married he so edu-

cated his daughter who afterwards married
Meno the Crotonian, when she was a
that
virgin she was the leader of choirs and when
a wife, she held the first place among those
who approached the altars.
The successor to Pythagoras was Aristaeus,
the son of Damophon the Crotonian, who was
thought worthy both to succeed to the position
of teacher in the school and to marry Theano,
the wife of Pythagoras and educate his chil-
dren. Pythagoras himself taught in his school

forty years wanting one, and is said to have

lived nearly a hundred years. After Aris-
taeus relinquished the school, on account of ad-
vanced years, Mnesarchus, the son of Pytha-
goras, succeeded him.
Accounts differ concerning the origin of the
85
hostilities which arose against the Pythago-
reans and also as to where Pythagoras was
at that time. Some say he went to visit Pher-
ecydes the Syrian, his former instructor, who
was dying; others say that he was in Meta-
pontum, where he terminated his life, for it
was the custom with the Pythagoreans, when
they became very old, to liberate themselves
from the body, as from a prison.
One version of the origin of the trouble is

that Cylon the Crotonian, who held first place

by birth, renown and wealth, desired to asso-
ciate with the Pythagoreans, but was rejected
by Pythagoras on account of his severe, violent
and turbulent manners. Therefore his anger
extended to all the members of the community,
finally culminating in the setting fire to the
house of Milo, in which the Pythagoreans
were seated and all the men, except two, were
burnt. Archippus and Lysis escaped, the
former returned to his native land, Tarentum,
and Lysis migrated to Greece, and where he
terminated his life.

As the disciplines had been preserved by the

disciples in their breasts, as something arcane
and ineffable, science failed together with

86
those who possessed scientific knowledge. A
few disciples who were then in foreign lands
preserved some sparks of science. These made
commentaries and symbols, gathered together
the writings of the more ancient Pythagoreans
and noted such things as they remembered,
so that the name of philosophy should not be
entirely lost to mankind and the indignation
of the Gods be thus incurred.
Apollonius dissents from some of the par-
ticulars of the disaster that overwhelmed the
community. He says that Pythagoras was the
envy of others from childhood. As long as
he conversed with all <^hat came to him, he
was pleasing to them, but when he associaetd
with his disciples only, the multitude became
displeased. They did not object to his paying
attention to strangers, but were indignant that
he preferred some of their fellow-citizens be-
fore others and apprehended that his disciples
assembled together with intentions hostile to
them, and hence determined to destroy them.

87